On Wednesday, the members of the Washington Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee were presented with a preliminary report on the transparency in higher education data.

The preliminary report  found that comparable revenue, expenditure and performance information is currently available for each of the six public four-year institutions. However,    work is needed in order to understand how revenues, expenditures and performance influence one another.

Though the preliminary report found no statutory compliance issues, suggestions were made related to improving comparability and transparency of data should the Legislature want to create a more transparent and comparable system of higher education data.

• Program expenditure categories and definitions are old and may be outdated. The report suggests the Washington Office of Financial Management (OFM), with input from the Legislature, should review the categories and definitions.
• OFM no longer maintains program categories and definitions and does not review for consistency in expenditure reporting. The report suggests the Legislature should direct OFM to maintain categories and definitions and review expenditure reporting.
• Nonappropriated/nonallotted funds are not typically included in Legislative Evaluation & Accountability Program (LEAP) fiscal reports. The report suggests LEAP should develop an option for including these funds on higher education fiscal reports.
• It is not currently possible to see how much revenue is generated from different types of student fees and how each type of fee revenue is spent. The report suggests the Legislature should identify which fees it wants to track separately and then establish separate funds for those fees.
•  The institutions are not depositing all revenues from the same sources into the same accounts (e.g., student fees). The report suggests the Legislature should develop more specific statutes on which revenues should be deposited in which funds.

Beyond these suggestions, the preliminary report offers two recommendations.

• OFM should correct its Fund Reference Manual to comply with statute. Currently, statute (RCW 28B.15.031) directs that operating fees be deposited in a local account containing only operating fees revenue and related interest. The institutions use Fund 149(Operating Fees) for this purpose. However, OFM’s Fund Reference manual has a broader definition of Fund 149.
• Central Washington University, the University of Washington, Washington State University, and Western Washington University should comply with statute to correctly disclose the amount of state support their students receive. Currently, statute (RCW 28B.76.300) mandates that institutions report to students on the amount of state support that students are receiving. However, some institutions did not provide accurate and/or complete reporting to students.

The final report will be presented to members of the Committee on December 1. The four-year baccaluareate institutions and state agencies involved with the report will have an opportunity to present formal responses regarding the findings to the Committee at this time.